Chris Lombardi puts defense and security under the spotlight, as he shares his takes on recent NATO and EU cooperation and provides insight into the company’s own long-term strategic partnerships in Europe.

Three trends are currently driving the global electricity sector: decarbonization, decentralization and differentiation. Utilities are making significant contributions to mitigate carbon emissions, while a technology revolution is …

A close shave

George Papaconstantinou was briefly an MEP for a few months in 2009, before becoming finance minister of Greece in October 2009 in a PASOK-led government.

He held that position until June 2011 when he became environment minister, leaving the government in May 2012. Last week, he narrowly avoided joining the cadre of ex-MEPs who have been given prison terms. He received a one-year suspended sentence for editing three of his relatives’ names out of a list of 2,000 names of Greek nationals who had accounts with a bank in Geneva, which was passed to him by the French government (and known after the then finance minister as the “Lagarde list”).

The Greek tax authorities famously failed to investigate this list. The bank concerned was HSBC, whose Swiss subsidiary has come under greater scrutiny in the past couple of months, much to the discomfort of Stephen Green, a former UK government minister who used to be chairman of HSBC.

There is something splendidly parochial about the state-aid investigation launched last week by the European Commission’s competition department into JC Decaux, a French advertising company. The question …